Isabella Beeton was born Isabella Mayson in 1836, in London. She published her first book in 1861, while in her mid-twenties, selling 60,000 copies in just under a year. Her emphasis was that life should be lived “economically, tastefully and well”, and noted that “there is no more fruitful source of family discontentment than a housewife’s badly cooked dinners and untidy ways”.
With people looking to tighten their household budgets, it seems that modern families could do well to take some of Mrs Beeton’s advice.
Isabella Beeton in the Kitchen
Beeton used local ingredients that were freely available and relatively cheap. Cuts of meat more suited to slow cooking – cheaper stewing steaks and offal – are featured throughout her books. She gives instructions on how to cook stewed shin of beef, tongue and mutton, cuts that don’t tend to be used often by the modern cook. There are also recipes on how to dress a sheep’s head and how to cook a collared pig’s face. She also carefully notes when foods can be found in season, how long it takes to cook and the average cost of the dish.
Mrs Beeton is best known for her contribution to cookery, but she also advised Victorian ladies (for in those days it was seen as woman’s work) on how to care for the sick, clean the house effectively and how to make and administer home remedies.
Mrs Beeton in the Home
In caring for the sick, she insists on a quiet room for the ill person, and that the carer should have a “calm and decisive” manner with the patient. Beef tea, she explains, is “relishing” but has “little nourishment”.
Other advice includes how to apply leeches (and how to get them off afterwards!), how to clean jewellery, feathers and how to wash brushes. She even offers a remedy for the promotion of hair growth – a combination of olive oil, spirit of rosemary and oil of nutmeg. There are very detailed instructions on spring cleaning and precise information on beating carpets and replacing heavy winter curtains to make way for the warmer months.
There is even advice on dealing with domestic servants; a subject she says is often discussed by ladies “over a quiet cup of tea”.
The Legacy of Isabella Beeton
Isabella Beeton died in 1865 aged just 28, of puerperal fever – a complication of childbirth after she delivered her fourth child. In her short life, she provided guidance to Victorian ladies on all matters of the household, prompting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write that her work had “more wisdom to the square inch than any work of man”.
With her practical, economic and wholesome advice on cooking, cleaning and household management, her work deservedly continues to hold interest 150 years on.
Essential Beeton by Isabella Beeton is available from Summersdale Publishers Ltd, Chichester (2004).
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